Ignore the rhetoric from SB 1070's opponents. Ignore the spin coming from Gov. Jan Brewer and her allies.

The Supreme Court's decision Monday was a nearly complete rejection of the anti-illegal immigration law. Rejecting the arguments made by Brewer, former Sen. Russell Pearce and their allies, the court said immigration is solely a federal responsibility, with the Constitution pre-empting state efforts to "curtail or complement" federal law.

SB 1070's provision making it a state crime to be in the country illegally? Can't do it.

SB 1070's provision allowing Arizona police to make warrantless arrests of people suspected of being here illegally? Can't do it. The law "attempts to provide state officers with even greater arrest authority, which they could exercise with no instruction from the Federal Government. This is not the system Congress created," the decision's summary notes.

SB 1070's provision making it a crime for an illegal alien to seek work? Can't do it. "The correct instruction to draw from the text, structure, and history of (federal law) is that Congress decided it would be inappropriate to impose criminal penalties on unauthorized em­ployees. It follows that a state law to the contrary is an obstacle to the regulatory system Congress chose," the decision states.

And the court took any teeth out of the one provision it let stand, the requirement that police seek to determine immigration status of those they encounter. Rather than the broad power Pearce and the Legislature envisioned, the court tightly constrained what officers can do without running afoul of the Constitution and inviting a slap down from the courts.

SB 1070 is as good as dead. And so is the arguments that states can "complement" what is completely a federal responsibility.

Issues are taking center stage in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Businessman Wil Cardon is attacking front-runner Rep. Jeff Flake’s record, which Flake is quick to defend. Both candidates talk about the priorities they would advance if they’re elected.

Likewise, the Democratic primary for the new 9th Congressional District is turning into a spirited affair, with candidates Kyrsten Sinema, David Schapira and Andrei Cherny mostly debating issues.

Both races have seen attacks, but based on issues, not personalities.

And then we have the new 6th District, where first-term Congressmen David Schweikert and Ben Quayle are battling for the Republican nomination.

To say both campaigns have disappointed is an understatement. This is quickly becoming Exhibit A for why people hate politics and politicians.

Last week, the Quayle campaign accused Schweikert’s organization of trying to plant a spy, a young woman who raised suspicions when she signed up to volunteer. Quayle staffers said they checked the address she listed and found it was for the Islamic Community Center in Tempe. They immediately went to Schweikert’s headquarters, where they found the woman sitting at the front desk. They also found 18 Quayle signs.

“Ben Quayle began this race by challenging his opponent to run a high-level campaign, focused on the issues. It’s unfortunate that Schweikert and his campaign have rejected that,” Quayle’s team said in an e-mail to supporters.

Schweikert’s campaign responded that it doesn’t spy.

“We find it disappointing and frankly abhorrent that the Quayle campaign would disseminate the name and contact information of an underage Schweikert for Congress volunteer to the media,” Schweikert’s statement said, without addressing how Quayle would have gotten that information. “We fully expected their campaign to engage in dirty tricks, but dragging an underage volunteer … into their scheme represents a new low for even the Quayle campaign.”

And as for those signs? According to Schweikert’s side, Quayle’s people placed them on the windows and sidewalk of Schweikert campaign headquarters as some sort of prank.

Who’s telling the truth? Frankly, it doesn’t matter. This is the sort of silliness you expect from a town council race. It’s unbecoming of two men who want to continue making laws for the nation.

There’s not a lot of difference between Schweikert and Quayle on issues. This was always going to be a race about style and leadership ability. If last week demonstrates the style and leadership they’re offering, voters have good reason to be disgusted.

Moving on

This will be my last column for the Scottsdale Republic. I’m taking on new responsibilities overseeing the editorial and opinions pages of The Arizona Republic.

I’ve enjoyed my six years as opinions editor here. Scottsdale is a tremendous community full of talented, passionate people. Whoever follows me in this job will find it invigorating.

As my office moves a few miles south, one final thought for the conversation: Scottsdale must guard against complacency. While others in the Valley mock “Snobsdale,” they all want to pass Scottsdale. And there is no end to communities around the world trying to take away the Northeast Valley’s tourism business.

Believing that this city is good enough will hand it to them. Great cities, understanding how easy it is to fall from the top of a mountain, continually adjust to the times. For Scottsdale to continue to be great, it needs to do the same.

Tom Silverman does not mince words: “This is just nuts,” he says. “It’s way overkill.”

The owner of Chaparral Suites Scottsdale is referring to a new federal requirement that hotels and resorts, just recovering from the recession, install fixed lifts for every pool and jacuzzi.

Nuts, indeed.

Since 2010, resorts and hotels have expected to make changes to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. They believed they’d be able to buy a single portable lift for the rare occasion when someone in a wheelchair asked for help getting into a pool.

But in January, the Department of Justice dropped a bombshell: Hotels and resorts need to install a fixed lift for every pool, every jacuzzi. The lifts cost $3,000 to $9,700 each. Installation can add another $3,000.

“I’ve got four pools — two regular and two jacuzzis,” Silverman said.

Other Northeast Valley resorts have more. The price tag takes a chunk out of the bottom line.

And for what?

The requirement to build ramps at city intersections and public buildings made sense. Traditional curbs and stairs impeded daily mobility. But pools?

Silverman has run Chaparral Suites for three decades. He’s had many guests in wheelchairs or using canes. Not one has asked about getting into a pool, he said.

Rep. David Schweikert, speaking on the House floor, told of one Scottsdale resort owner who said he has had a portable lift for 10 years to serve his seven pools and jacuzzis. No one has ever asked to use it.

Now the feds expect him to spend as much as $70,000 to replace a dust-gathering portable lift with seven permanent ones. How does that make sense?

“I think the Department of Justice is just looking for something to keep it busy,” Silverman said.

Hotel operators also worry that fixed lifts will become an attractive nuisance, with children and adults climbing and jumping off them. In resorts where management removed diving boards to reduce legal liability, it would be a sadly ironic turn of events.

The hotel and resort industry arose in mass when the rules came out in January, which set a deadline of March15. The Justice Department extended the deadline to May21, and now Sept.21. That gives those in the northern half of the country a pass until next summer.

But in Scottsdale, Phoenix and other warm-weather resort communities, it’s little more than a reprieve. They’ll either have to shut pools or shell out big bucks.

Unless the Justice Department changes its mind, which doesn’t seem likely, or Congress passes the Pool SAFE Act, which would allow the use of portable lifts shared among pools. It also would delay the effective date until March.

It’s a reasonable compromise that relieves resort operators of an onerous burden while assuring access for travelers with disabilities.

Incredibly, the bill is co-sponsored by only half of the Arizona delegation: Reps. Schweikert, Ben Quayle, Jeff Flake and Trent Franks. This ought to be a bipartisan effort to protect a key state industry from costly overregulation.

Everyone can support the idea that people with disabilities should be able to enjoy their stay at an Arizona resort. But that enjoyment doesn’t require a fixed lift at every pool and jacuzzi. Based on resorts’ experience, it may not even require a portable lift.

But as long as the ADA is the law, there will be requirements and regulations. At least let them have some grounding in common sense.

Ted Taylor was placing the final tiles on a 16-foot mosaic when a little girl rode up on her bike and asked to help.

Taylor had designed the grapevine motif and placed more than 500 small tiles for the artwork celebrating a new garden at the Paiute Neighborhood Center. He had a lot invested, so he immediately thought of all the things that could go wrong.

But he said yes. He showed the girl, a Head Start student, how to press the small, sharp tiles representing buds into place.

Then, she asked if she could pick where the next one went. Again, he thought about all that could go wrong.

Again, he said yes.

She picked the perfect spot. And then she did one more.

“I thought how appropriate that this young child would put the last three pieces on this mosaic,” Taylor told his colleagues in Scottsdale Leadership’s Class 26 as he and the rest of his team described their Pay It Forward project.

The anecdote helped to drive home the reason the team had spent scores of hours developing an idea, soliciting donations and building a 200-square-foot irrigated garden and reading circle for the children and families served by the Paiute center.

But it also encapsulates the Pay It Forward program, which just wrapped up its third year as part of the Scottsdale Leadership training regimen.

The bimonthly class is divided into five to six teams that are given three months to conceive and deliver a community-service project, with the one judged best winning $2,000 for its charity. Projects are judged on impact and sustainability.

“It builds confidence,” Executive Director Chris Irish said. “They feel they can go out and help with whatever is needed.”

They’ve learned to consider all the things that could go wrong and then, like Taylor, to take a leap of trust.

In doing so, they build a stronger community. At least nine of the first 12 projects continued after the Scottsdale Leadership teams moved on. This year’s projects seem sure to boost the percentage.

There is the garden and reading circle at Paiute, with strong ties to the children and parents.

A program at Title I schools to send food home with children for the weekend has a waiting list of volunteers.

The team that planned a “Dream Fair” to connect incoming freshman and their families to activities at Coronado High School left a step-by-step guide for next year.

The winning entry went a step further: Its guide on how to organize a musical-instrument drive for Ear Candy can be used nationwide.

Scottsdale Leadership traditionally measures its success by the leaders it develops. They are prominent throughout the community in elected and volunteer positions.

Pay It Forward gives the organization a new measure. These projects expand the community’s capacity to meet needs: for youth, for seniors, for the developmentally disabled, for the environment.

This year’s Scottsdale Leadership class will graduate Friday and move on. The little girl who helped finish the mosaic will leave Head Start, grow up and move on. Other challenges await.

But the Scottsdale Leadership projects will continue to pay it forward. The three buds on an artful grapevine, a symbol of strength and longevity, will continue to inspire.

Both will continue to remind Scottsdale how a few motivated people can make a lasting difference.

The Northeast Valley has a history of sending independent-minded representatives to the state Capitol — people willing to buck their party and follow their conscience.

That trait has shown up again this year, but not as often as you might expect. On eight controversial bills this session, the Northeast Valley’s senators followed party lines six times.

In the House, representatives followed party lines on two of six bills. Freshman Rep. Kate Brophy McGee showed the most independence.

McGee broke ranks with Republicans on bills to allow guns in public buildings (eventually vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer) and to prohibit abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy.

She voted against a bill exempting religious organizations from having to provide contraception coverage in health insurance, after voting for an earlier version that allowed any employer to cite religious beliefs for dropping contraceptive coverage.

Rep. Eric Meyer was the only Northeast Valley Democrat to join Republicans on any of the bills. He voted to let companies collect tax credits for what they considered excessive city or county regulation.

The bill passed the House 39-18 but stalled in the Senate.

The Senate vote totals were a surprise — and a disappointment. Michele Reagan, Adam Driggs and, to a lesser extent, Nancy Barto are known for their independent streaks. But those streaks were barely evident.

All three voted for the tinfoil-hat bill that lashed out at the United Nations by banning sustainability efforts in Arizona.

All three voted for the unenforceable and likely unconstitutional bill laying claim to federal land.

All three voted to allow guns in public buildings.

I understand the concept of picking your battles and hoping the other chamber or the governor bails you out. But really? Why would senators with a reputation for intelligence join forces with the nuttiest members of the Legislature to give late-night comedians more material?

The sole battle Reagan and Driggs picked was over the contraception bill. They were among seven moderate Republicans who joined Democrats to defeat the original bill giving any employer the ability to opt out of offering coverage.

They voted for the compromise, brokered by Barto, that restricted the exemption to religious-based organizations.

On another social issue, Barto and Driggs voted to ban abortions after 20 weeks, while Reagan voted no.

In the closest thing to a tourism issue this session, Reagan and Driggs joined a bipartisan 16-13 majority to re-establish tax credits for movie production in Arizona. Barto voted against the bill, which has not received a House vote.

And that was it for independent thinking on controversial bills from Northeast Valley legislators. Here’s hoping for a better showing next year, after the election.

Reps. John Kavanagh, Michelle Ugenti, David Burnell Smith and Heather Carter (except for one absence) voted the Republican party line on the six bills that made it to the House floor. Reps. Eddie Ableser and Ben Arredondo voted the Democratic line.

Sen. David Schapira voted with Democrats on the eight bills that reached the Senate floor.

His parents’ home had two living rooms. In one, the family relaxed and watched TV. The other was off limits, its perfectly vacuumed carpets and carefully placed furniture reserved for company and holidays.

“You’d have cake on your plate, and if one crumb fell, all the kids froze and looked at each other: ‘Did Mom see that?’”

In the Valley, Scottsdale is the formal living room, said Neighbors, co-founder of a series of tech incubators. He didn’t mean it as a compliment.

Being so perfect works against the city in an economy built on rapid and disruptive change, he said. “When a place is too nice, it prevents the chaos from happening. There’s no permission to innovate.”

Scottsdale’s image also keeps young entrepreneurs away. “Millennials see Scottsdale as not for them. It’s for old people,” he said.

Hold on a minute, said Susie Timms, who with Neighbors was part of a Scottsdale Leadership panel on navigating change in a new economy. The Saguaro High School graduate was a Scottsdale bank president at 27 and now, at 33, runs a successful marketing agency. She finds the city welcoming for people her age.

“I am constantly defending Scottsdale,” she said. “I agree we have to bridge the gap between reality and perception. This is a place for innovation. There are a core of us wanting to break the stereotype of a place full of rich people who don’t get it.”

But whether it is Neighbors’ reality or Timms’ perception, Scottsdale faces a challenge in appealing to young people.

Scottsdale’s median age is 45.4 years, the highest of any large Arizona community, according to the 2010 census. Median ages in the Northeast Valley’s four towns are higher yet.

Boomers look at the world differently than Millennials do, which creates culture clashes in the workplace and in public policy. Older residents enjoy the order — the formal living room — that Scottsdale projects. Younger workers, more socially than financially motivated, prefer unpredictability. They can live with a few cake crumbs falling. The most visible culture clash: the entertainment district.

The challenge for Scottsdale is to keep both groups happy.

Yelp opened what has become its biggest office in the Galleria because company leaders liked the urban vibe developing downtown — the walkability, the unique shops and restaurants and, yes, the bars. Walk though the workplace, and you won’t confuse it with a traditional insurance office. It is infused with the atmosphere and creative chaos of new-economy companies.

Most Boomers would be uncomfortable working there, but they ought to be happy Yelp is in town. The company is a trailblazer, showing other young firms Scottsdale fits.

The trick for city leadership is to recognize that while old- and new-economy firms share financial interests, young companies have additional needs. Stability is not as important as a variety of experiences and cultural offerings.

Scottsdale’s tourism leaders figured out that younger upscale travelers have different interests than the traditional visitor. That’s why they so strongly support the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Hiking a rugged trail is as appealing to a younger tourist as golf is to an older one.

The city has both, making its tourism industry stronger.

The city’s economy is stronger with established, traditional companies and up-and-coming ones. But to achieve that, we have to loosen the formal living room. Everything doesn’t always have to be perfectly in place.

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